This invention relates to catalysts useful in homo- and co-polymerizing ethylene and other olefinic hydrocarbons. In particular, it relates to catalysts containing a transition metal .pi.-bonded to a ligand that contains an azaboroline ring.
Until recently, polyolefins have been primarily made with conventional Ziegler catalyst systems. These catalysts typically consist of transition metal-containing compounds and one or more organometallic compound. For example, polyethylene has been made using Ziegler catalysts such as titanium trichloride and diethylaluminum chloride, or a mixture of titanium tetrachloride, vanadium oxytrichloride, and triethylaluminum. These catalysts are inexpensive but they have low activity and therefore must be used at high concentrations. As a result, it is sometimes necessary to remove catalyst residues from the polymer, which adds to production costs. Neutralizing agents and stabilizers must be added to the polymer to overcome the deleterious effects of the catalyst residues. Failure to remove catalyst residues leads to polymers having a yellow or grey color and poor ultraviolet and long term stability. For example, chloride-containing residues can cause corrosion in polymer processing equipment. Furthermore, Ziegler catalysts produce polymers having a broad molecular weight distribution, which is undesirable for some applications such as injection molding. They are also poor at incorporating .alpha.-olefin co-monomers. Poor co-monomer incorporation makes it difficult to control the polymer density. Large quantities of excess co-monomer may be required to achieve a certain density and many higher .alpha.-olefins, such as 1-octene, may be incorporated at only very low levels, if at all.
Although substantial improvements in Ziegler catalyst systems have occurred since their discovery, these catalysts are now being replaced with the recently discovered metallocene catalyst systems. A metallocene catalyst typically consists of a transition metal compound which has one or more cyclopentadienyl ring ligands. They have low activities when used with organometallic compounds, such as aluminum alkyls, which are used with traditional Ziegler catalysts, but very high activities when used with aluminoxanes as cocatalysts. The activities are generally so high that catalyst residues need not be removed from the polymer. Furthermore, they produce polymers with high molecular weights and narrow molecular weight distributions. They also incorporate .alpha.-olefin co-monomers well. However, at higher temperatures metallocene catalysts tend to produce lower molecular weight polymers. Thus, they are useful for gas phase and slurry polymerizations of ethylene, which are conducted at about 80.degree. C. to about 95.degree. C., but they do not generally work well in solution polymerizations of ethylene, at about 150.degree. C. to about 250.degree. C. The polymerization of ethylene in solution is desirable because it allows great flexibility for producing polymers over a wide range of molecular weights and densities as well as the use of a large variety of different co-monomers. One can produce polymers that are useful in many different applications. For example, high molecular weight, high density polyethylene (PE) film useful as a barrier film for food packaging and low density ethylene co-polymers with good toughness and high impact strength.